'Intensified' Pressure on Trump to Withhold Some JFK Files

Thursday is the day set in law 25 years ago for the disclosure of remaining hidden documents
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Oct 26, 2017 6:03 AM CDT
Updated Oct 26, 2017 6:45 AM CDT
Trump Coy About Today's Release of Secret JFK Files
In this Nov. 23, 1963, file photo, surrounded by detectives, Lee Harvey Oswald talks to the media as he is led down a corridor of the Dallas police station for another round of questioning.   (AP Photo)

President Trump is playing it coy on what people will see from long-secret JFK assassination-era files and didn't tip his hand on the eve of the release. "The long anticipated release of the #JFKFiles will take place tomorrow," was all he said in a tweet. "So interesting!" Scholars and sleuths say the CIA is pushing Trump to keep some of the materials secret. The spy agency isn't denying that, the AP reports. The relative success or failure of their lobbying efforts will be known Thursday, the day set in law 25 years ago for the disclosure of remaining hidden documents on Kennedy's 1963 killing. Only the president can hold some back. "Clearly there are documents, plural, files, plural, being appealed to him," said University of Virginia historian Larry Sabato, an authority on Kennedy.

Of the pressure on Trump, Sabato said, "I'm told reliably that it continues and that it has intensified." The historian said documents generated in the 1990s that could contain the names of people who are still alive are of particular concern to those who want files held back. Whatever details are released, they're not expected to answer the major—and for many, still-lingering—question of whether anyone other than Lee Harvey Oswald was involved in the assassination, including the government. Politico anticipates "almost instant frustration with the files" for casual readers trying to pore over the documents themselves, due to CIA and FBI jargon, code names, the use of foreign languages, and the fading of ink. Still determined? It offers 10 tips you can employ once the dump happens.

(More JFK assassination stories.)

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